Pivot With Purpose Season 6 Episode 6 Jennifer Desrosiers Full Transcript
Meghan Houle (00:03.284)
to the Pivot with Purpose podcast. How are you?
Jennifer Desrosiers (00:07.823)
I'm so good. It's so nice to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Meghan Houle (00:11.732)
Yes, no, I'm so honored and I feel like our connection has just been this like beautiful evolution with so many common denominators of individuals where I don't know, I think our big messaging over the past like year plus has been go to events, like put yourself out there. You never know who you're going to meet. But I remember our first connection came between our friend Kat, where I feel like it was like one of the
events I went to very early on, like after COVID, when things were opening up up in Maine and you were hosting and I was like, my gosh, she's amazing. And then with your restaurants and all your amazing food, I'm like, my God, you're extra amazing. So I feel like the synergy between us and here we are. I was like, I want to be like Jennifer, you know, no, it's.
Jennifer Desrosiers (00:53.71)
Hehehehehe.
Jennifer Desrosiers (00:59.406)
my gosh, I was thinking that because you came right up to me at Kat's event and you were making connections and just so genuine and real and excited. It was refreshing because you're right, it was, I think, probably one of the first live events I did post -COVID. So it was great.
Meghan Houle (01:03.828)
yeah!
Meghan Houle (01:16.212)
Yeah, it was really great. And then I know I always tell you the story for all those listening and Jennifer will get into it, have a few amazing restaurants and just this like amazing like health food journey that, you know, she's really been on, you know, with what all she serves and provides. But, you know, Lainey and Lou in Exeter, right across from from Seedog, you know, I've
been in your world, even before we met as I was eating there, I'm like, I wonder who owns this place. And that's when we were doing the takeout out of the window and I was like, this is amazing. So we were meant to be connected. So I'm so excited for you to share all about your journey to entrepreneurship and running multiple businesses and the highs and the lows and everything in between. So before we dive in there, tell us a little bit about the here and now.
Jennifer Desrosiers (01:47.79)
Thank you.
Jennifer Desrosiers (01:52.366)
You're right.
Meghan Houle (02:10.036)
Where are we catching you? What are you up to today? What's going on in your world? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (02:16.718)
Yeah, 2024 has been a really interesting year for me. I came into the year feeling really on fire because last year in July and in September, I opened my second and third brick and mortar restaurant. So I was in like a build phase for the 12 months before that in terms of construction and design and concepting and hiring, et cetera. And then once we got into 2024, I felt really excited to
put things like really into autopilot. Autopilot is probably not the right word, but really into motion and start strategically growing my companies. So I really tried a different approach in 2024. And I feel like I've had, you know, a number of setbacks and challenges as we would expect to, you know, I have three restaurants, I have another e -commerce business, I have an overarching experiences company. So right now where you're getting me is I'm,
I'm, you know, we're nearly halfway through the year. So I'm taking a step back and really looking at the strategic goals that I set for myself and initiatives I set for myself and my companies early on in the year and just being like, okay, are we still going in the right direction? Where do we need to pivot? And how do we finish out the year strong? And then personally, I, you know, I sometimes can really lose myself in my businesses. I think many of us.
Meghan Houle (03:33.396)
Hmm.
Right.
Jennifer Desrosiers (03:45.198)
have that same challenge and so with the warm weather, I really like to come out of my cocoon and so spending more time outside, getting back to the things that I love to do like hiking and mountain biking, those are all sort of my top priorities right at this moment.
Meghan Houle (04:01.108)
Yeah. No, I mean, and I think for anyone listening, and I think loyal listeners know we're recording in from the Northeast. Well, not always the guest, but Jennifer and I are definitely Northeast based. And we only have like a finite amount of time where it's nice and we're not freezing. So we have to maximize the summer.
All right, so I'm right there with you, literally forcing myself outside after work, get away from the computer, go take a walk. And now the sun sets, what, like eight after eight, which is so great. So absolutely, we need to find that quote unquote balance, you know, whatever that looks like for us, of really enjoying and getting out there. And, you know, diving right in, do you feel like what you are doing today is what you thought you'd be doing early on in your career?
Jennifer Desrosiers (04:35.342)
So great.
Jennifer Desrosiers (04:54.062)
No, absolutely not. I mean, it depends on how early on we want to reference, but from the time when I was a teenager, like 13, 14 years old, I was already sort of mapping my life and just really looking forward to creating a lot of personal success and freedom. And I think that came from growing up in a very small town in Vermont and wanting to create something more for myself and then also creating a life that would allow me to experience the world around me.
And that was very unusual. Most people around me hadn't even left the country, maybe even hadn't left the Northeast Kingdom. So I always was very focused on developing a corporate career. I did that for, you know, about 20 years. And then, and then I obviously pivoted into restaurants and hospitality in a way that was not planned at all. And I was literally just having a conversation before.
Meghan Houle (05:49.364)
Mmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (05:52.462)
I jumped on with you here with my CFO, what we were just talking about. You know, it's hard to know even what the next five to 10 years will be because things evolve so, so quickly, at least for me. So I'm excited to see where the journey goes.
Meghan Houle (06:00.724)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (06:05.044)
Yeah.
Heck yeah. Well, where do you feel like that big juicy pivot came in your career? Yeah, tell us a little bit about that.
Jennifer Desrosiers (06:14.286)
Yeah, so I loved my corporate career for so many reasons. I was afforded the opportunity to travel all over the world. I was very fortunate to be a high earner, even though I had to fight really hard. I was in corporate business development for manufacturing, very male dominated industries. At one point in my career, I was a business development manager and like an international business development manager. And I was one of.
Meghan Houle (06:32.852)
nice.
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (06:43.086)
150 of us around the world, the only woman. And so sales conferences were interesting. I have a lot of crazy stories. Some not so fun. Yes, exactly. And I enjoyed that, but I was constantly, constantly hitting my head on the glass ceiling. In fact,
Meghan Houle (06:45.268)
Mm -hmm.
Wow. Yes. Yes, girl. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine. That's another podcast. my gosh.
Meghan Houle (07:09.172)
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (07:09.87)
When I left my first like real corporate job out of college, I sat across, you know, in the small conference room from the president, CEO of the company. This is a $2 billion international company. And he legitimately said, you keep hitting the glass ceiling and I can't get you past it. And I don't know why. And I said to him, I'm like, you are the CEO of this company. The only person that can make that happen is you. So if you're unwilling to.
Meghan Houle (07:27.956)
Meghan Houle (07:35.924)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (07:37.486)
and you're sitting here telling me I have all this talent and all this opportunity, then I'm glad I'm leaving. So anyway, it's wild, but yeah. So, awesome.
Meghan Houle (07:43.22)
Yeah. So with corporate, were you traveling around like based in like the Northeast and like traveling or like what did that look like for you? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (07:52.334)
Yeah. Yeah, I was, I was based in the Boston area and at the time I spent nine years with one company, seven years with another, four years during college with another. So all very similar, gritty, male dominated manufacturing environments, which I love. There's just something really, for me, really exciting about being in manufacturing. I love process development.
Meghan Houle (07:57.812)
Got it.
Meghan Houle (08:02.868)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (08:07.796)
Mm -hmm.
Wow. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (08:19.022)
you know that the hunt, the sale, the development of relationships for me, that's what I spent 16 years doing and traveling all over the world and there's something really cool about I would travel a lot to Toronto for my first corporate job and be able to sit in the room with people from all around the world working on a specific project that was driving new technology. It was really super exciting. But,
Meghan Houle (08:43.54)
cool. Yeah, I'm glad.
Jennifer Desrosiers (08:46.222)
you know, 16 years into it, post college, I started feeling ill and I started feeling like I couldn't shake this feeling of like not just not feeling well in my body. And then I've always been an athlete and conscious of my health and wellness, et cetera. And I was like, what is going on with me? And I had just discovered the, I guess the deeper,
parts of yoga. I had done yoga through the years, but I was really starting to understand all the limbs of yoga and spirituality and something just kind of triggered with me. I'm like, yeah, Jen, you are disconnected from your body. You're disconnected from your work. You put your mask on every day. You put the most masculine mask you can find. You walk in every day. You put everything else aside in order to.
be what these people need you to be and it's destroying your health. And I made a really big decision at that point that I was no longer going to compromise myself for the success of others and I decided to leave my corporate job to try to pursue something in health and wellness.
Meghan Houle (09:59.364)
my God, like, can we just have an amen, like compromise your health for the success of others? Like, hello, say it louder for those in the back. And I think that story can resonate in many ways with many individuals across the board, whether like fully corporate male dominated or even in businesses alike. You know, I think that for so many years, and I think you and I are part of a generation where like you just.
worked. I mean, like there was no social media, there's no distractions. Like you get in, you get your head down, you know, you do the best you can. I don't know if you grew up this way, but like very much for me, it was very much like, no one's taking care of you girl. So you better go like get out there and make it happen and build your life. And if you want to do things like you're going to have to get them done yourself. So, you know, there's a moment of, I don't know if it was always like scarcity, but I was just like super motivated to, you know,
be always performing at this high level and showing up and working all these crazy shifts, but then going back and just feeling depleted, almost like joyless too. Because you do, you show up, you put your mask on, you kind of go through the motions. And yeah, I mean, there's that point too when our body, if we don't tell ourselves we need to slow down, the body will. So what did that journey look like for you when you finally said, okay,
Jennifer Desrosiers (11:07.182)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (11:25.14)
not subscribing to this lifestyle anymore? Was there a pivot in there that what you just kind of like left or transitioned and how did you follow maybe that health journey for yourself and recognizing that? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (11:42.19)
Yeah, I mean, the health portion of it was significant enough that I was consulting with doctors and trying to get a variety of tests, try to understand what was happening, and I wasn't getting any answers. And I literally picked up Christianne Northrup's book. What is it called? Like The Wisdom of Women or whatever it's called. Anyway, I picked up that book and just started trying to figure out.
Meghan Houle (11:53.3)
Mmm. Mmm.
Meghan Houle (12:04.212)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (12:09.038)
you know, inflammation, I was having some issues, it felt like I was having issues with my kidneys, no one could figure it out. And so in that book, there's one single line that basically says there are inflammatory foods and they include soy, sugar, you know, gluten, et cetera. And so I found the Paleo diet and it sounds so basic, but literally that is exactly, I remember sitting in my front yard, reading that one line, going in and researching inflammatory foods.
Meghan Houle (12:14.1)
She is.
Meghan Houle (12:32.5)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (12:36.558)
finding the Paleo diet, never heard of it before. And so this is circa, this is circa 2012, maybe something like that. There weren't a lot of, no one was talking about health coaching, none of this stuff existed back then. And so, yeah, so I changed my diet right then and there. In 72 hours, I felt like a brand new person. It was unreal. And that was when I decided,
Meghan Houle (12:45.364)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
No. Yeah. No.
Meghan Houle (13:01.972)
Wow. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (13:05.486)
okay, I think I can do something with this, because I wanna help other people feel as incredible as I feel. And then of course I brought in meditation and all these mindfulness practices, more yoga, mindful movement, and totally changed my eating styles. I just couldn't believe it. And now I feel like it's so mainstream, but again, it's like you gotta kind of rewind yourself back 12 years ago. It was not that way. So people would see me,
Meghan Houle (13:25.62)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (13:34.734)
that hadn't seen me maybe in a period of weeks, and they would go, what is going on with you? You are like glowing. I've never seen you like this before. It was a really, really tangible difference.
Meghan Houle (13:44.06)
Yeah. Yeah. Where did that pivot come in then to say, okay, there's something here? Because I know we kind of referenced in the beginning, but in talking about your restaurants and like all the things which we'll definitely get into, yeah, where did that pivot come in to say, there's something here and I need to like expand and kind of serve like a community and population.
Jennifer Desrosiers (14:07.342)
I knew immediately just through my work with mindfulness that I wanted to create more impact in the world. And that was another piece of my sort of discovery process with my corporate job is that I knew I was not really impacting community. And that felt like a big loss to me and something that I was almost ashamed of. And so...
when I decided to make the move away from my corporate job to create something in health and wellness, I knew I wanted to create community and that was just a massive core value for me. And so I started trying to, I was teaching yoga by this point, growing my health coaching business and I just happened to be, I was really struggling with that. I don't want to point this picture of like, wow, I was like well on my way. I was.
Meghan Houle (14:58.804)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (15:02.254)
finding a lot of resistance, I think a lot of us do, this is a massive shift in my lifestyle. And it's way easier for me at that point to put 100 hours in to my corporate job and travel all over the world and do that comfortably than it was to go sit down and go, okay, I'm gonna write a blog post. Like, how does that work?
Meghan Houle (15:05.044)
Yep. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (15:15.38)
Yep.
Meghan Houle (15:19.7)
It's exhausting. Well, true. And it's a creative process too, sometimes exhaust you. And it's also a corporate uncertainty. What you and I have pivoted into and just entrepreneurship is uncertainty. And you have to show up in a very different way. And I'm sure you've dealt with highs and lows of feeling like, I have all this stuff to share. And then you're like, I don't have anything to share. Is anyone listening? Does anybody care?
Jennifer Desrosiers (15:37.006)
Yes.
Meghan Houle (15:47.38)
Yeah, but like, how did you navigate those highs and lows and also too in a sea of competition? Because what was the year that you were starting to kind of create everything? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (15:58.286)
Yeah, so I mean this is 2012, 13, 14. You know, really looking back now, I ran away from it as fast as I possibly could. I had, I developed a business that was rooted around health and wellness and adventure. I had a very clear vision for what I wanted to create and I was so freaking scared of it that I ran the opposite direction and found plenty of other things to make money and keep me busy and things like that. And then,
Meghan Houle (16:01.044)
Got it, yep.
Meghan Houle (16:06.42)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (16:11.06)
Mm -hmm. Awesome.
Jennifer Desrosiers (16:26.702)
while I was distracting myself with those other things, you know, serendipitously, I was walking to a meeting and I looked through, I saw a little for lease sign in the window of this building in a small town called Exeter. And as soon as I peeked through, I was just curious, because I knew there had been a sandwich shop there in the past and it hadn't lasted too, too long. And so when I looked through the window into this space, I just had one of those,
crazy intuitive moment where everything was so clear and I had never experienced anything like this before and I just saw it all. I saw the seats, I saw the people, I saw the menu, I saw the chalkboard on the wall and when you walk into Laney and Lou Exeter now, it looks exactly how I saw it in that vision and it sounds crazy but it happened and that was in May of 2015 and three weeks later I signed the lease.
Meghan Houle (17:21.108)
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (17:25.614)
Four months later, we opened our doors and I thought I could run this health and wellness business that I was scared shitless about and run this restaurant at the same time and they would work synergistically together, which that part is true, but I completely underestimated how hard it would be to run a restaurant and really what that restaurant would be for the community and for myself.
After day one, we served over 100 people and I was like, shit, we got a real restaurant here, girl. I call it a big girl restaurant. I was like, we got a big girl restaurant, we thought we would serve 30 people, we actually served 100 and within four months we were serving 600 people a day and it was just absolutely bonkers.
Meghan Houle (17:52.508)
I bet. Yeah. Yes!
Meghan Houle (18:02.228)
Wow.
Meghan Houle (18:06.612)
my gosh.
Yeah. Well, tell us about Lainey and Lou. What was the concept? Because I also feel like, I mean, you kind of came in at a time where, and I know Exeter, New Hampshire very well, but maybe for the listeners, kind of explaining what that community looks like. Because I also feel like in those serving options, it's like there are...
there wasn't a lot of these amazing kind of health food, nourishing spaces, unless you're going to a chain or you literally have a brewery across the street from you. People just love to come in and get really well -made sandwiches in quality, but it's hard to continue to show up and perform at that high level in quality. So that consistency is so important with the client and so on and so forth. Yeah, how did you navigate those early months and that f***ing
Jennifer Desrosiers (18:42.03)
Meghan Houle (19:00.436)
first year of it. And yeah, I guess there was definitely that white space need in that community. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (19:05.902)
Yes, yeah, the concept itself was very selfish on my part, to be honest. I wanted to serve the food that I was looking for. And so again, this is 2015. We got to rewind back to, you know, the early, you know, 2010, 11, 12 timeframe where I was really figuring out my health and wellness journey. And so I was, you know,
Meghan Houle (19:17.492)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (19:33.806)
I was eating superfoods at home and making the most phenomenal smoothies and salads and feeding myself in a very specific way using coconut oil, etc. You couldn't go anywhere and find anyone that was making an egg in coconut oil. They were using some rancid soy -based or vegetable -based disgusting oil. I was like, no, there's another way.
Meghan Houle (19:52.628)
Right.
Jennifer Desrosiers (20:00.942)
And I don't have to only eat this way at home. And so I wanted to serve the food that was serving me. And that's exactly what I did. So I, you know, we came out of the gate with things like bulletproof coffee. We call it fat coffee. And, you know, I was serving bulletproof products. We were the first to do turmeric lattes, I believe in all of New England. We were using, right? We were using Maca. And so we came out of the gate with 30 super foods on the menu.
Meghan Houle (20:24.308)
Yes, girl. Mm -hmm. Yeah. Wow. Yes.
Jennifer Desrosiers (20:30.99)
Our menu is giant, you know, salads and grain bowls and smoothie bowls and avocado toast. No one was doing avocado toast in our area at all. And people were like, wait, you're doing, you're putting avocado on toast? Like, I don't get it. Now we weren't the first to do that, but you know, you could find it in LA, but you weren't finding it around here. And you, you might not even find, like I went throughout all of Boston looking for a turmeric latte, could not find one.
Meghan Houle (20:45.236)
Yeah, like, yes, it's delicious. Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (20:59.188)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (20:59.63)
So it was a really interesting time. And so we came onto the market with something completely new, and I don't know why it worked. It worked. I knew people were hungry for something like this. I knew what it was doing for my own body. But what I think I did right in that moment was just saying, hey, we're going to put some stuff out there that you're not used to seeing. I'm not going to throw a ton of education your way. Just come in, taste it, experience it.
Meghan Houle (21:25.876)
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (21:27.182)
We put things on the menu that were unique and that people could understand as well as simple as like an egg sandwich. But what you have to dive deeper into what we're doing and that's the thing is like some people really get the inner details of what we're doing. The intricacies of the, you know, every little detail matters. But others, they just come in and go, I feel great. It looks great. It tastes great. And that's all that matters. So anyway, that's.
Meghan Houle (21:32.436)
Right. yeah.
Meghan Houle (21:51.636)
Yeah.
Yep.
Jennifer Desrosiers (21:56.974)
That's kind of how Lainey and Lou started. And, you know, it's been fun to watch the market develop around our innovation because now of course we, we call them transformational lattes, which is the tumor Glaté and other things using superfoods. And we developed a whole market and menu around that. And it's been fun to watch many other local restaurants, all around us follow suit.
Meghan Houle (21:58.228)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (22:19.7)
Yeah, and going back to the story of like, you know, walking past the space and just having this visual moment, it's like such goose bump, you know, moment for me too, where I'm like, yes, you know, you knew it, you believed in it. You believed in it because it was working for you. And then like bringing this amazing offering to a community then that really got behind it and...
I mean, your salads, like everything is so beautiful and they taste amazing. So I feel like when people like have their spots and yeah, they come in and they're eating good food and they're leaving feeling good and not like stuffed and like, you know, I think that they're, yeah, it's good for you. There's so much beauty and that really seems like you pioneered it. And now you're right. I mean, I'm dying to get you here in Boston, but we've had some, you know, there's some restaurants that have,
Jennifer Desrosiers (22:59.214)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (23:11.214)
Thank you.
Meghan Houle (23:15.7)
come and gone, unfortunately. But I think that, yeah, from like a drink portion, I mean, we're all like crazy for like go to like routine coffees or lattes or whatever it is. I mean, I'm like, I have like three or four a day. I would be your best customer. I'm like, Mike, can we move to Exeter, please? But you know, it's a part of a routine and then showing up and seeing your awesome staff and so on and so forth. So people look forward to it. It's almost like a little treat, you know? I mean, it's definitely,
Jennifer Desrosiers (23:27.598)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (23:33.646)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (23:44.244)
you know, even a self -care moment, so to speak. So yeah, that's really cool.
Jennifer Desrosiers (23:46.606)
Yeah, and we've done so many things right, and I don't think I appreciated that in the moment. I just knew there was one thing that I wanted to do beyond anything else, which is I wanted to create an environment where people felt valued and seen. And that to me was not only for the guest, but also for the team. And so so much of this is driven out of my own personal experience, right?
Meghan Houle (23:50.484)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (23:54.452)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (24:16.334)
being in corporate environments for 20 years and never being able to be seen for who I was truly, right? I was only ever seen as the token woman and let me be as inappropriate and whatever else, because there's no ramifications and all this and put you in your place and do all that thing. So I was like, no, no, no, no. I want to create an environment where my team can come in and they know how important they are and they can be themselves.
Meghan Houle (24:23.532)
Ugh, yes.
Meghan Houle (24:44.82)
Hmm. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (24:44.846)
first and foremost. And then I think we've all had a variety of experiences and even some of our most favorite restaurants where you walk in and you're like, hello, does anyone even see me? I'm right here. Like I've chosen to invest my time, energy and money into your establishment. And you treat me like you don't even care. Like I went to the same Starbucks for, I would say three times a week for probably about six years.
Meghan Houle (24:56.244)
Yeah, yeah, to come in.
Jennifer Desrosiers (25:12.91)
I saw the same woman at the takeout window. I got the same one or two things every single time. This poor woman, I mean, I know nothing about her, but she never once even acted like she recognized me. And now she probably wasn't trained properly. Maybe she was very unhappy. Who knows what her circumstance was, but I took that, put that in my pocket and I was like, guys.
Meghan Houle (25:32.692)
Hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (25:37.262)
We are not gonna do that. So let's like learn people's names, learn their orders, but more importantly, let's form relationships with them and bring them into our family. Because without, A, without them, we wouldn't have anything, but also like, why bother if we're just doing a transaction? Like that sounds pretty boring to me.
Meghan Houle (25:38.324)
Mm -hmm.
Meghan Houle (25:49.748)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (25:58.196)
Right. Yeah. Well, no, and I just, I feel like service, the service industry is not for everyone. And there's certain, there's definitely certain individuals, you know, coming from retail and everywhere I've been to front -facing hospitality, where you have people that...
Yeah, kind of get putting these positions and you're right. I think sometimes it's a training thing. Sometimes it's just like a personality thing. But you know, you have to be cognizant of who you're bringing on board. And I mean, certainly it starts to with the top of setting that standard of like, you know, this is our brand. And you know, everyone that comes in the consistency, how we're making people feel, yeah, you know, that's how.
especially for brands like yours, you know, that have amazing names, but maybe people don't, you know, it's not a Starbucks that roll off the tongue, but you're like, my gosh, like I had amazing experience, the food was amazing. You know, Starbucks obviously has it easy because you're like, yep, show up coffee. You know, it is so transactional. So yeah, I feel like in building businesses, absolutely. We learned from the examples that we see where we're like, yep, we're not going to be like that and we can do better. And here you are so many years later.
with multiple restaurants. So how is it? What does the growth look like for you? And now having all these locations? And I know you have some other things that you're working on. Like, how are you feeling about where you are now? Talk to us about those pivots like from Exeter to sort of today. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (27:25.294)
Yeah, so I didn't really understand, you know, the how special Laney and Lou was until we were really in it and where Exeter has one of the most prestigious private high schools in the country in it, even though it's such a small, tiny, sleepy little town. And so I was able to get feedback from people from all over the world that were telling me you've got something really special here. And, and I knew that.
pretty quickly we were blowing a lot of the industry standards for performance out of the water. So that was really exciting too. But I think I'm always very, very transparent with the numbers and to do what we do, be as organic as possible, pay really well. We care a lot about the details. It's an expensive endeavor. So it's a very low margin business. So.
Meghan Houle (28:17.684)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (28:17.998)
You know, when I start to get excited and this is just so sad and probably alarming for so many people, but I get excited when I'm making eight cents for every dollar that we sell. Eight cents, eight percent profit, eight percent. I haven't gotten paid. I haven't paid taxes. It's a wild and very challenging endeavor. And that's my business model. Now, if you went again and talked to Starbucks or
Meghan Houle (28:29.588)
Mmm. Mmm.
Meghan Houle (28:40.444)
Hmm. Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (28:44.75)
a brewery or whatever, the indexes there would be very different, but that's what we're facing. And so for me, I knew that expansion was something that I think we needed to do, that I wanted to do, but it took me years to find the right place. And so last year, after eight years in business, we finally opened our second location and then somewhat on a whim, I had...
Meghan Houle (28:46.26)
Right.
Meghan Houle (28:50.804)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (29:12.206)
been pursued by a local bakery that was closing after 35 years and they wanted to find someone that would take on that business and keep going. And I was very resistant to the idea at first, but they convinced me that it was, you know, that I was the right choice. And I got really excited about doing something different. And so I, you know, again, I last year as well opened Ginger Fox. So I opted not to.
keep the 35 year old family run business going. We closed, rebranded, same location obviously. And I'm really glad that I did it. It's been an eye opening experience and probably one of the most difficult things I've ever done.
Meghan Houle (29:44.788)
Yeah. Yep.
Meghan Houle (29:58.868)
No. So how is Ginger Fox different from Lady Lou? And location -wise, where is the second location for the listeners? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (30:07.502)
Yeah, so Portsmouth, New Hampshire is Laney and Lew's second location. We doubled the size, doubled the amount of seats. We really optimized a lot of our operations, et cetera. So it's much more, it's much more where I see like the ultimate vision. Yeah, it's been fun. We have, you know, we have a lot of room to grow there and it's not a, it wasn't the slam dunk that I thought it would be, but we also chose a,
Meghan Houle (30:22.996)
I mean, Portsmouth is jamming too. Yeah, I mean like that is like, yeah, good. Yes.
Meghan Houle (30:35.028)
Hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (30:36.558)
you know, a location that was easily accessible, great parking, but off the beaten path a little bit. So, you know, we're having to work for it, but I feel good about it and it's a beautiful space. And then Ginger Fox is located in Stratum, which is kind of halfway between Portsmouth and Exeter. So it's great proximity for our team. And Ginger Fox is completely different in the sense that...
Meghan Houle (30:58.356)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (31:02.414)
It is, you know, we don't have like cane sugar at Laney and Lou, for instance. And of course, at Ginger Fox we're a bakery. So sugar and butter are some of our favorite things there. But yeah, so, you know, no one ever said that those things were awful for you. It's moderation. But what we have, you know, brought on board with Ginger Fox is we're still the same people. We still have the same ethos.
Meghan Houle (31:12.084)
You need that, yeah. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (31:18.996)
Right.
Jennifer Desrosiers (31:28.142)
we still put tremendous care into the ingredients that we buy and how the experience for our team and our guests. And I think that's why it's working. So it's a tiny little place, 750 square feet, purely takeout. But I always say we're a micro bakery doing big things because what our team is able to do and how we serve the guests is just.
Meghan Houle (31:44.244)
Super cute, yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (31:55.694)
It's really mind -boggling to me and it's such a pleasure to be a part of.
Meghan Houle (31:59.06)
Yeah. Well, and I know you, and I love how much you talk about the team and involving so many individuals. What is that coming from a recruiter over here? Here we go. Talk to me about the hiring and recruiting process. How has that been for you? Because I know in the service world, it can be really tough. It can be really tricky. It can feel like high turn. And I know you've grown. And obviously, you have now these C -level supports.
where I can't imagine that it was that way when you started off, you know, it was like Jennifer maybe juggling wearing all the hats, like how has your team evolved and when did you see that need to like hire more of those individuals that could support you too on a bigger level, like what's been your hiring strategy and what are some of the lessons that you've learned throughout bringing on individuals to your team? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (32:45.07)
Yeah, so I've sacrificed a lot personally in order to pay my senior leadership hopefully the best salary is possible in the industry and beyond. I know we're exceeding what a lot of the industry can do and that's just a personal decision that I've made because I feel like the more I can invest in my team, the better it will be. We spend a lot of time, you know,
really honing in on our mission, vision, core values, hiring to those things. So we're hiring for personality and just basic human, like who you are as a person, way more than we are with skill. And then I'm lucky to say that my senior leadership, those, you know, C roles, those people have, you know, grown up in our business and it's been such a gift to see like among senior leadership, you know, most of them have been.
Meghan Houle (33:36.148)
That's nice, yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (33:42.478)
with us for years and I think it's really based on our commitment to providing the best experience we possibly can and respecting their personal time, offering them challenges, growth opportunities, et cetera. So I actually think developing the team is something that has been one of my greatest joys of this whole process. It's also incredibly frustrating sometimes. And you know, it's like,
Meghan Houle (34:09.492)
and yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (34:11.214)
that just happened to us the other day in one of our restaurants, three people put in their notice within the same week and we were devastated to lose them, but all three of them were moving on to the next phase of their careers. It's not like they were leaving us to go to another restaurant. Oftentimes, our restaurants are like stepping stones and we have to be okay with that.
Meghan Houle (34:17.012)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (34:28.436)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (34:33.364)
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (34:36.334)
I made the decision a long time ago, two things actually. One is I will not be handcuffed to someone that is not serving the greater mission or the team, just because we need a body. And two, if we can leave people better than we found them, then we've done our part, because people will eventually move on.
Meghan Houle (34:47.668)
Right.
Meghan Houle (34:54.932)
Yeah, and those beautiful core values. I mean, I feel like you always remember that first stepping stone job, whether it's a nightmare and you work with the nightmare individuals. I mean, I grew up working in service. Do you actually, do you remember Brugger's Bagels? Do you remember Brugger's? Okay, shout out to Brugger's. That was like my high school job.
Jennifer Desrosiers (35:02.478)
Thank you.
Jennifer Desrosiers (35:11.302)
my gosh, yes.
Meghan Houle (35:16.788)
So I always laugh, you know, Megan, Megan will thrust it herself in, you know, very quickly. So at 15, 16 years old in high school, you know, I was the one getting up on Saturday mornings at five, six AM. I'm going to Brugger's like helping the bagels, the amount of like sharp knives we used to use. I'm like still a pro at cutting bagels, like little secret here. So if anyone needs a bunch of bagels cut, you know, give me a call.
Jennifer Desrosiers (35:35.374)
I'm sorry.
They have rules against that now.
Meghan Houle (35:44.436)
But I was like, dang, they give young kids a lot of responsibility. I think 15, 16 year olds now, some of them are very responsible. Just with all the things that are out there now, the crazy things that we used to use at that bakery. my God. But I remember I had this wretched boss who, and I was so meticulous. I was somebody who, as a young child, I loved to clean. If I stayed home sick from school, I would deep clean my family home.
Jennifer Desrosiers (36:12.654)
Hehehehe
Meghan Houle (36:13.14)
And like my parents would go home and it would be like Cinderella, you know, everything's like sparkling. And they're like, I thought you were sick. I'm like, eh, you know, but I still had to do something. I don't know. I'm whacked. Or truly. But I remember, you know, I was like mopping and like, you know, with service, like everything has to be like sterilized and whatever. So, you know, we took, I was a 16 year old, I took it very seriously. And I had this boss that would come in and definitely on a power trip for sure. And, you know, probably like 21, who knows. But.
She's like, yeah, like the front hall is like still like it's not good. And I'm just like, what? So I like, I literally, I think one day I remopped like three times and I'm like, no, this isn't it. But then you're, you know, no one wanted to work the shifts that she was working, but then we have the really awesome boss. It was like, so cool. We're like, yeah, Christine, let's like hang out. But you know, you learn so much, I think like.
Jennifer Desrosiers (37:03.694)
You
Meghan Houle (37:06.164)
than those developmental years. And of course, I'm sure there's individuals very much so that are a bit more older and established and so on and so forth. But those core memories, they lock it in and like, dang, I bet a lot of people leave you and they're like, I can do anything. I feel like truly if you can work in service and know what it's like to deal with the general public, there's a lot of jobs out there for you. Those are a lot of foundational hard skills and soft skills that you learn. And especially with someone like you.
And I'm sure the team you surround yourself with that share your same values are really teaching and training that next level individuals that are going to go out and continue to share your practices. And you're right. It's like your children. You're like, go out there, make things happen in the world. And you're so proud. So I love that. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (37:43.534)
Yeah.
And I, for me, like I always tell the team, like, I will teach you this business inside and out for free. Things that I, you know, would charge my coaching clients, you know, hundreds and thousands of dollars for. If you come and ask me to go through the P &L with you, I will go through it top to bottom. I will explain it to you and teach you how it works. And it's amazing to me how many people...
Meghan Houle (37:59.796)
yeah, thousands. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (38:11.118)
don't ask, most of them won't ask. And I know that they have aspirations for owning their own businesses, et cetera, but I'm like, what can you extract from your experience here? Pretty much every single day, you can extract something that will eventually infuse back into your own business. And it's kind of sad to me. I'm like, come on guys, like, ooh, take more of this opportunity that's available to you.
Meghan Houle (38:13.94)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (38:17.844)
Awesome.
Meghan Houle (38:34.42)
I know. Yeah. Some good lessons there too. Certainly those listening and building their careers, ask, hire ups, mentors, can you show me this? And I think sometimes they're ashamed and like not being the expert in something or not knowing or sometimes they don't think like, I don't want to bother someone. But I mean, we're all teachers. We're business owners, we're entrepreneurs. We've been teaching for a long time.
We've failed, so our failures are there rewards of what not to do and maybe how to do it better. But on that too, has there been a pivot in your entire journey that you feel like has really gone wrong and how do you feel like you got back on track? If there's anything there, yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (39:03.63)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (39:17.206)
my gosh, yeah, I mean, I feel like right now I am really stepping back and examining my patterns, like my patterns in my life and probably learn behavior for like by came about maybe through my childhood and how I was raised, my experience as a child, my position in our family, et cetera.
Meghan Houle (39:27.06)
Mm. Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (39:41.454)
and how that affects me as a leader, as a business person. So I'm doing a lot of deep inner work around that right now. And I think some of the biggest mistakes I've made is inviting people into my life, but also into my business that did not serve me well. And I've probably spent...
Meghan Houle (39:48.532)
Mm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (40:06.606)
I don't even know. I mean right now I can think of one contract that was $60 ,000 to a specific contractor that or consultant I should say that was just a complete and utter nightmare and I felt it in my bones that it wasn't right but he told me it was and I you know and all the things that he could do and create and then completely underperformed and now when I look back I'm like yeah this is just this was just one more example of letting in a very
Meghan Houle (40:17.588)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (40:27.412)
Ugh, yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (40:35.918)
you know, manipulative, coercive, narcissistic person into my life and I need to be very cognizant of those relationships now. The more I go through it, the more I can see those patterns. So, you know, those are sunk costs that you can't get back most of the time.
Meghan Houle (40:41.332)
Ugh.
Meghan Houle (40:44.788)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (40:48.468)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (40:53.428)
I know. And how do you feel like, because same also, you know, with having people that have come on that have helped me that I'm like, you know, kicking myself to this day of like, did I really spend that much money? You know, I think just because you and I show up and we know the value and we're, we probably over deliver and under charge in some ways.
Jennifer Desrosiers (41:12.686)
Yes.
Meghan Houle (41:13.652)
But then there are those people that have no problem with the super high things and you're like doing the girl math. You're like, no, it's not math for me. You know, they're not showing up because our standards are so high too. But like, you know, for maybe someone listening in and even like with employees and staff, like when do you know when the hard conversation needs to be had if someone's not performing or they're not showing up for you? Like how do you have those difficult conversations to transition out or exit a contract or an employee?
Jennifer Desrosiers (41:21.742)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (41:42.9)
And I'm sure you have had to have a few of those at least, but like, yeah, how do you navigate that? Or how did you? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (41:49.198)
I think it's important to be able to recognize your own pattern. So for instance, for me right now, I'm realizing that my pattern is I don't love to rock the boat. I'm very cognizant of, you know, I was taught to always be nice. You keep everything in. Nobody knows what you're going through. You know, everything's fine. And sometimes everything isn't fine. And there's a difference between being nice and being kind.
Meghan Houle (41:52.724)
Mm.
Meghan Houle (41:59.732)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (42:06.068)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (42:11.508)
Yeah, totally.
Meghan Houle (42:17.524)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (42:17.806)
And so I'm really trying to, you know, to not stifle my voice. And I think a lot of people probably, if you took 25 people that were closest to me and they listened to what I just said, they would probably go, wait, what? I don't even, I don't see that as being part of you, but it really actually is. And so I'm really trying to do the hard work around.
Meghan Houle (42:24.052)
Good.
Jennifer Desrosiers (42:42.862)
How can I have the difficult conversations and know that I'm not being a bitch because I'm asking someone to do their job or asking more of someone or trying to challenge someone or asking them to work outside their comfort zone that really, you know, my, I'm always coming from a place of positive intent, which I know that I am. And, you know, and again, like if someone's underperforming or they're struggling, let's have a conversation on why that is rather than just ignoring it. So my,
Meghan Houle (42:48.18)
No. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (43:12.558)
advice to others is have those conversations early because you know often times for instance Let's do something that most people understand. We've all probably been in relationships I'm assuming probably your listenership is mostly women so like let's just say like most of us as women probably can look back and go I don't really know why I dated Joe You know I was with Joe for three years, and I knew it I knew it within the first two weeks that he wasn't right for me, but I hung on I
Meghan Houle (43:17.556)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (43:42.26)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (43:42.446)
And so like, why do we do that? And if you look at the relationships that we have in our personal life, oftentimes the patterns are echoed within our professional life as well. So don't hold on for longer than you need to and have that conversation. I mean, like something's not working here. What is it? Is this something that we can work together on?
Meghan Houle (43:44.884)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (43:58.644)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (44:03.054)
And if we can't, we're just fundamentally, you know, we're not aligned or, you know, your personality or approach doesn't fit our vision and mission for our business, you gotta cut now. It'll be better for everyone in the long haul. And that can often be the kindest thing that you can do is to say, we are just not right for each other.
Meghan Houle (44:17.14)
Ugh, aim.
Yes.
Yeah, such good advice. And from all of the clients I work with, I do some team strategies, HR consulting, to have someone who's super negative in their space or environment.
I mean, it's like an infection, truly. It just spreads and then others are like, yeah, that's not right. It's like, what, Hunger Games uprising? So you have to immediately, if there's something or someone that's truly detrimental, it's just addressing it in the here and now and not letting it sit and fester. Because I think then it even shows other individuals in the company like, well,
not doing anything about it, like maybe like this is okay. And then, you know, it just like can continue to get worse from there. So I agreed.
Jennifer Desrosiers (45:12.686)
Exactly, exactly. We have to model the behavior that we want, especially our leadership team, to have. So like right now, to be very transparent, right now I have a couple of my general managers that really feel like they're taking on a lot, like if they don't do it, it's not going to happen. And I'm like, while I'm coaching them, I'm actually looking in the mirror going, wait, I actually think I'm modeling that behavior. So no wonder they're doing it. So how can we all step into this?
Meghan Houle (45:18.708)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (45:30.036)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (45:35.348)
Right. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (45:41.518)
So like I always teach two things and one is like you gotta get, you gotta understand your foundation, foundation being vision, mission and core values. And I think if you don't understand those three things, if you can't verbalize and identify those things both professionally and personally, and maybe those things are the same, but you know, oftentimes they're not. Hopefully they're aligned and they work well together and integrated together, but know those three things. And then from there,
you can easily, you can refer back to those words, phrases, et cetera, when assessing somebody else. So it's way easier to be like, you know, I'm sorry, Joe, it's not working out because I don't feel like, you know, you are in alignment with our core values. That's really critical. The other thing that I often, you know, will refer back to is what I learned in the book, Traction, which if people haven't read it,
Meghan Houle (46:28.628)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Meghan Houle (46:38.964)
Mmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (46:40.014)
You need to go read it. It's a great, it's an easy read, but he talks about, this guy Gino, talks about using the GWC process, which is evaluating your people in three areas. Gets it, that's the G, wants it, that's the W, and has the capacity for it, that's the C. So gets it, wants it, and has the capacity for it. And it's so easy to evaluate yourself and others.
in that framework instantly. You don't have to do some big complicated PIP, performance improvement plan, et cetera. It's like, they're either in it or they're not. And it's a really easy way to decide, can we work with this or not?
Meghan Houle (47:08.18)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (47:14.26)
Right. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (47:21.172)
Right. Well, and you know, and I think getting that out there and like being able to move forward, you got businesses to build, you know, three restaurants, all kinds of things going on, you know, and in this maybe self -awareness moment. Yeah, what, you know, beyond Lainey & Lewis and then Jinder Fox, I know you're coaching. So like, what else do you have sort of going on where people are working with you or, you know, you're doing offerings? I know you still are a part of events. You just had an amazing event in Portsmouth.
you know, I guess like who is Jennifer too outside of like these like four wall spaces, so to speak. Yes.
Jennifer Desrosiers (47:58.222)
Yeah, I love to create positive impacts. I love to bring people along with me and adventure, so adventure and having an adventurous mindset is really at the core of everything that I do. And so I wanted to return back to the business that I created 12 years ago that I kind of ran away from. And so I created a company called Altitude a couple of years ago.
And really for last year, we were growing the foundation of that business while we were opening the other two restaurants. But Altitude, it's really fun. We call ourselves an elevated experiences company. It can be easily confused as a hospitality company, but we're not. We're something different. I'm trying to create a new, I don't know, maybe a new paradigm on what these things can look like. And it's also very representative of the things that I love.
Meghan Houle (48:43.412)
Hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (48:56.334)
Which I think is cool because it's a great reminder that we, you know, as entrepreneurs, we can create whatever the hell we want. And it doesn't have to make sense to everyone, right? So, yeah, so Altitude is a container for our brands, yes. So in that sense, it is a hospitality company because we have three hospitality brands, but also,
Meghan Houle (49:01.556)
Yeah. Mm hmm. Amen. No to nobody but ourselves and then we're like, we're doing it. Yeah, that's amazing. Mm hmm.
Meghan Houle (49:15.636)
huh.
Meghan Houle (49:20.18)
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Desrosiers (49:22.222)
but also it's a platform for which I create live experiences primarily centered towards female entrepreneurs and leaders. And then I also do coaching and consultancy. So I know the restaurant world fairly inside and out. So, for instance, someone just contacted me a couple of weeks ago. We sat down for one hour. He came to me with...
Meghan Houle (49:31.892)
Mm -hmm.
Meghan Houle (49:35.86)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (49:41.14)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (49:49.39)
You know, this is the business that I want to buy. Here's the purchase price. Here is some of the details. You know, do you think we can make it work? And within 55 minutes, I, you know, I'm like, I hate to, I hate to, you know, rain on your parade, but I actually don't think it's a good, it's a good choice. And by that point, we had already laid out most of the P and L and the budget projections in 55 minutes. And, you know, and I know he walked away. I think he's still going to do it, but that's his choice, you know, but it's going to be a hard road.
Meghan Houle (49:53.972)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (50:12.916)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (50:17.46)
Right, right. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (50:19.182)
And you just, like, those are the things I think I'm really good at. And then I do some small group coaching for, you know, for business owners. I have two groups going right now. And it's really, it's really fun. So I like getting into the foundation of business, but also we spend a lot of time talking about mindset, right? Cause mindset is very easy to want to run the other way. It's very easy to feel downtrodden in our businesses. It's not.
Meghan Houle (50:22.004)
Awesome. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (50:30.58)
Wow.
Meghan Houle (50:39.604)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (50:48.782)
It's not hard. I mean, it's not easy. It's a very hard endeavor to do our own thing. So yeah, I just find a lot of joy with that. So yeah, so that's what I'm doing. And I love putting on a good party. So my live events are, they're just like, if I could do live events all the time, that would be fantastic. Maybe.
Meghan Houle (50:53.396)
Yes. Yeah.
-huh.
Meghan Houle (51:02.804)
I know, yes.
Meghan Houle (51:08.564)
I know, maybe. Maybe there's the business model in there for us. I'll do it with you, girl. I got you. Well, a few more questions before I let you go. So tell me, in this coaching container program, for a lot of also entrepreneurs that listen in, what do you feel like you're seeing people really struggle with the most, beyond mindset? Because of course, we have to get over, are we worthy? Are we enough? Self -awareness things, really believing that all is possible and the naysayers and putting all that aside.
But listen, our worthiness ebbs and flows. I mean, some days I'm like, yes, recruiting, it's so neat. And other days I'm like, nobody cares about what I do ever. What we do is not sexy. We're not selling a sexy product or whatever. We're basically connecting. It's my job matchmaking. More to come on that. But I feel like you think like, we're so great. And then you're like, no, nobody cares. So.
Jennifer Desrosiers (51:47.918)
Hehehehehe
Meghan Houle (52:04.756)
Is that sometimes like a tug of pull of like, yes and no, yes. But like, what do you feel like you're seeing? And this year has been pretty challenging to be honest. I think for a lot of people, like what's kind of sitting in that common theme message for people working with you that you feel like they're really struggling with and how do you help them? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (52:23.918)
I think people really struggle with where do I put my time and effort, right? I'm being pulled in five million different directions. Maybe some people underestimate what entrepreneurship really means. Especially, let's just take something simple that we can all understand. Like, I want to be a coach. Okay, you want to be a coach, but you also have to manage your finances if you have other people involved. Even if you just have contractors, now there's an element of human resources.
and people operations that you need to deal with. There's the operational piece of how you run your business and structure your programs or structure your businesses and then of course marketing. So you have to be able to understand and really execute all of these pillars of your business. And most of the time people just want to focus on the things that they're most excited about and then the rest goes. So I'm really seeing...
Meghan Houle (53:16.564)
Right.
Jennifer Desrosiers (53:19.662)
people having a hard time prioritizing, again, what do I do, what do I have to focus my efforts on, what should I be strategically thinking about, and how can I do it all at one time? And it's like, no, no, no, actually you can't. So let's create a framework where you're focusing your efforts, where you're gonna get the most bang for your buck, and your time and energy. And so you can see tangible increases in your own product.
Meghan Houle (53:25.844)
Mm -mm.
Meghan Houle (53:31.412)
No, yeah.
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (53:41.844)
Yep.
Jennifer Desrosiers (53:45.646)
productivity or the growth of your revenue, etc. or decreases in cost, whatever that is, something that's hopefully measurable so that you feel like today was worthwhile, I got somewhere. And I think a lot of people end up feeling eventually like they're just sort of treading water in their businesses. And that's not a really super fun place to be. And then a very exciting piece of altitude is having, now I have...
Meghan Houle (53:48.404)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (54:02.9)
See you.
now.
Jennifer Desrosiers (54:12.526)
people on my team that are experts in other areas of business execution than I am. So, right now I'm seeing a lot of the women that I'm working with are not really up to speed with their financials or how to really understand the financials in their business. So, my CFO and I are putting together programming.
that we can workshop this stuff through. And then as a small business owner, it's hard to know how much do I invest? Do I get a bookkeeper? Don't I? Et cetera. And I'm always one to say, unless you love this and you're good at it, that's probably the first thing that you should invest in. Forget about getting someone that's gonna work on your Instagram feed and make it look pretty for you. If you don't know your financials, you're in trouble. And so that's not very fun. People don't wanna invest money in that, but that's...
Meghan Houle (54:42.452)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (54:52.98)
Mm -hmm, mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (55:01.39)
typically where I'll tell people to start.
Meghan Houle (55:03.54)
Yeah. And do you mostly work with female entrepreneurs, right? Would you say or do you have any corporate people that maybe have been like you that are like, I got to get out of here and how do I pivot Jennifer? Like who is your ideal client?
Jennifer Desrosiers (55:18.286)
yes, yeah, so I feel like, I mean right now in my private coaching, in my small group coaching, we have women that are just starting to women that have been in it for decades. That's really fun place to be, but I feel like for my private coaching, I do help people pivot from their corporate gigs into their own thing. So business startups, and then obviously in the hospitality world, like we can really get into.
Meghan Houle (55:30.164)
Yeah, cool. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (55:41.364)
Awesome. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (55:48.014)
operational efficiencies, finances, concept development, branding development, et cetera. And then I also tend to work with women that are early stage. So they're still trying to figure out exactly where they're meant to be. And so that's a really fun one to start to really uncover and then helping them focus because you can't do all things at the same time, like we were just saying, but also like be careful about diversifying your business too soon.
Meghan Houle (56:17.3)
Totally. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (56:17.646)
But you know, it's like then you're gonna start to feel, if you already feel spread thin, you're gonna be even spread thinner. So yeah, so right now I am growing my private one -on -one coaching and then I have some programs as well. And I'll have some live events probably later in the summer and I have one in October, I mean November, sorry. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (56:22.292)
yeah. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (56:30.164)
Okay.
Meghan Houle (56:34.26)
Awesome.
Meghan Houle (56:38.804)
Yay. Yay. So what does the application look like to work with you? Is it something where you take on individuals at certain times and times of the year or cohorts? How does that work for any new clients that might be interested in working with you?
Jennifer Desrosiers (56:55.534)
Sure, so I'm not going to be doing any more small group coaching this year. Our two cohorts are full and operating through November, so we'll relaunch that again early next year. But I am taking on one -on -one coaching, so people can just find me at jenniferderojers .com and click the work with me button. And then I've got some things in there that you can buy right away.
Meghan Houle (57:02.164)
huh.
Meghan Houle (57:08.468)
Awesome. Yeah.
Okay.
Jennifer Desrosiers (57:22.574)
just to get us sort of started, but then I have obviously like I I understand there's not a one -size -fits -all and so I really like to design programs around what people need.
Meghan Houle (57:29.108)
No, totally. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (57:34.548)
Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah, same. So, well, tell me before I let you go. So all of these businesses, the big juicy corporate pivot, like what are you most proud of? Or in what maybe do you feel like you've learned the most about yourself in this process and where you are now?
Jennifer Desrosiers (57:54.542)
I'm really proud that I don't shrink away from the work. And I feel like I am forever evolving. And I'm here for it. I'm here for it. I really like to sit down and listen to myself and ask myself, am I going in the right direction? That's sort of my selfish answer. And then I guess, ultimately, the way that we've served and built community.
Meghan Houle (57:59.028)
you
Meghan Houle (58:03.54)
Mmm, love that. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (58:24.174)
I have no greater joy than standing in the back of my dining rooms and looking out and watching people connect with each other over our food and then hearing their intimate stories about what our food or what our environment or the interactions they've had with our team, like what that has meant for them. And there are so many tearful moments where people say like, I...
Meghan Houle (58:33.94)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (58:46.99)
You know, I just had this happen a few weeks ago. Like, I just found you, I've been coming here for a month, I've already lost 30 pounds. I come in, your team knows my name, I feel valued. You know, those are the, that's when you go, okay, that just made it all worthwhile. It's very cool.
Meghan Houle (58:50.868)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (58:57.556)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (59:02.932)
Totally. What are you most excited for looking into the future?
Jennifer Desrosiers (59:10.99)
Wow.
Meghan Houle (59:11.732)
I know. It sounds like you got lots more to do, but maybe we're in a moment of like refiguring and then spending some time with Jennifer, right? Do you feel like that's like the moment? Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (59:21.646)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Every now and again, it's, it is a very cool, you know, thing to go, wait, like I can do whatever I want. And like letting other people know that they have that freedom of choice too, which is, is very invigorating. That's really, that's really fun. but I personally have been thinking about trying to plan another really big adventure.
Meghan Houle (59:31.604)
Heck yeah, girl. Yes, you can.
Meghan Houle (59:38.612)
Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (59:48.878)
I, in 2011, climbed a 20 ,000 foot peak in Peru and I was just asking myself the other day, I'm like, wait, why, yes, okay, I got distracted with some businesses, but that doesn't mean you can't do these things again. So I'm very excited about that. And then I am excited to really get more of our programming and stuff for Altitude launched.
Meghan Houle (01:00:04.948)
Yep.
Meghan Houle (01:00:14.452)
Yeah, it was so needed. You know, especially in our communities, the rise of entrepreneurship, the lack sometimes of resources or truly like qualified people that, you know, want you to get the best results possible. I mean, as we know, both of us being in coaching, you know, we're here to guide and facilitate at times, but you have to do the work. But I also feel like people are so inspired by those that have really walked in that path and that are so kind.
and wonderful and just have this like amazing energy. And I mean, there's so many facets to you that I think make you an ideal coach for many women, you know, who maybe aspire to be like you. So I know you're doing amazing things for your restaurants, for the community, for health, for education, you know, women in business, you go girl. I'm so proud to know you. And, you know, in terms of working with you, what
So your website, which we'll definitely link, I know you have your Insta, we can link everything in, but are you in DMs or what's the best way for people to maybe engage with you as well? Yeah.
Jennifer Desrosiers (01:01:24.814)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean through altitudecompanies .com or jenniferderosures .com you can easily find me there. I try not to hide, I'm easily findable and then of course DMs through Instagram work as well.
Meghan Houle (01:01:28.724)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Meghan Houle (01:01:38.132)
Yeah, I know. I love your Instagram, your inspo's, your fashions, like all the things, you know, all the food where I'm like, I'm about to drive to New Hampshire right now. BRB. But Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing like your voice, your story, your time, everyone, you know, especially in our Northeast, like get up to Portsmouth, you know, go to Exeter, Stratum, like visit all of the places and check Jennifer out online.
Jennifer Desrosiers (01:01:44.43)
Hahaha.
Meghan Houle (01:02:05.716)
and I can't wait to see what's next. So thank you for being here with us today.
Jennifer Desrosiers (01:02:11.95)
Thank you so much. It was so much fun.
Meghan Houle (01:02:13.556)
Thank you.